"...James Wigderson takes on local and state issues with intelligence and humor. Even those who disagree with Wigderson respect his thoughtfulness and grasp of political matters." Waukesha Freeman "Community members and columnists help make award-winning Opinion Page" February 5, 2009

Thursday, April 16, 2009

As part of his budget, Governor Doyle would reduce the monitoring for many sexual offenders from active real-time monitoring to passive after-the-fact monitoring. Instead of an alert being sent immediately when an offender enters an area that puts them in violation, the state would only find out when the GPS device is "recharged" and the record of the previous 24 hours is sent.

In other words, if the sex offender re-offended after finding a child victim in an off-limits area, we won't be able to put the offender at the scene until long after the crime has been committed.

Sex offenders would be moved from an active monitoring to a passive monitoring system after a year on parole even if they meet the following criteria:

* Raped a child under 12 years old.

* Molested a child under 13 and caused great bodily harm.

* Raped a child under 16 through the use or threat of force or violence.

* Molested a child under 16 through the use or threat of force or violence.

I think most of us as parents would rather the state know where those people are rather than cross our fingers and hope that our child is not the blip on the GPS record downloaded 24 hours after the fact.